The parents of a critically ill boy who was told “get a taxi” when he called 119 for an ambulance and subsequently died without ever receiving medical attention are suing the city responsible.

The 19-year-old Yamagata prefecture student suddenly fell ill at home one morning at 5AM in late October, suffering severe vomiting and delirium.

He managed to call 119 for emergency services, but instead of being dispatched an ambulance he was told “take a taxi to hospital,” with the dispatchers refusing to send help, a taxi, or to inform the hospital.

Help never came and he was unable to find his way to hospital. His parents became concerned, and had his landlord call on him 10 days after the call, whereupon he discovered the boy’s remains at home.

Recordings of the call which somehow escaped mysterious loss, deletion or misfiling audibly demonstrated him having difficulty breathing, being only barely able to speak, and apparently not in full possession of his faculties.

His parents have filed a lawsuit against the city responsible, asserting that not despatching aid to a dying man is a clear dereliction of their legal obligations and demanding ¥10,000,000 in compensation.

The city has so far declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

The case has understandably sparked outrage amongst Japanese:

“This is horrible. Somebody who doesn’t regularly use taxis wouldn’t even know their number, and for them to tell someone sick enough to have called for an ambulance to find the number of a taxi company and call one himself, go outside and wait for one whilst sick on a winter morning… are they devils?”

“Since they are only asking for 10 million it really sounds like they are more interested in finding out why they let him die than just claiming compensation.”

“That’s a trifling sum for a 19-year-old’s death.”

“The city ought to at least comment on why they didn’t send out an ambulance!”

“At least they didn’t send him an ambulance only for the hospital to refuse him.”

“He could have at least asked them for the right number.”

“Because telling someone who called 119 at 5AM to come to hospital themselves in a taxi is just such basic common sense, right!?”

“Blame this on all the idiots who call 119 for no good reason.”

“Why haven’t they established his cause of death fully? They are getting off lightly if he really did die because of this.”

“They probably don’t have tons of money to start a huge suit against the city. I expect their lawyer plans to start off with this and then use the proceeds for further litigation.”

“What about the poor taxi driver who’d be expected to drive a fatally ill man to hospital…”

Why would you think this would ever happen in China? The dispatcher would've gotten the public execution China style, as opposed to Japan, where public servants are considered immune to worldly laws or common sense.

Tragically, this almost happened in Canada. While I was volunteering for community services, I received a call from a middle aged man living in a remote region who was immobilized from the liver pain he was suffering.

He called the ambulance but the ambulance stopped about 15 minutes from his house and told him the snow is too heavy, they cannot cross the bridge to get to him and he had to walk out to meet them. The ambulance said they would wait 30 minutes and if he doesn't come out they will have to turn back.

Fortunately someone at dispatch had some common sense and ordered the ambulance back to him along with a snowplow truck to clear the way , and we avoided pulling a Japan.

You're right, it's not the hospital's fault. EMS units are not run by the hospital. Ambulance services are run by an independent company, which partners with the hospitals within an X-mile radius. This is why you get a separate bill, with a ridiculous fee attached, if you need the service of one.

Agreed with the criminal prosecution. If I did this to someone, refused to take them to the hospital when I knew that they were sick even if unrelated to the person in question, I could be charged with negligent manslaughter.

The culpability level is even HIGHER when it is a town-hired person running the ambulance service.

what? you mean japanese dont actually summon creatures from a card game? or get raped by tentacles? what about an average loser guy being liked by multiple, cute, big breasted, blue, pink, and red headed school girls?

Well if by 'weeaboos' you mean beta asians that practice their social withdrawal and pretend they are into asian culture by whacking off to pixels. Judging by the tear-induced down vote bitch moves whenever a news story that asspains them appear, this seems very likely.

lol really? you must not watch the news, there have been tons of stories like this in the states.

Frankly, I'd rather die than have an ambulance pick me up, there's no telling how much that would cost me, I had to go to the emergency room once, my heart was fluttering, my breathing was heavy, I saw sparkling white lights, my head tingled, and when I put my hands up to it, the tingling spread to them. I was in the hospital for 2 days, and the doctor only came to see me once, he said "you're heart rate is high, blood count is low, your oxygen levels are low, and we don't know why" what kind of doctor just says "we don't know why" should have said, "we havent figured the reason, but we are still working on it" but no, after that he left, a nurse came back and said "we are discharging you because we need the room" I then got a bill a week later charging me exactly $10,000. They never figured out what happened to me, so I'll never pay that bill, even if I had that kind of money.

That guy saying "At least they didn’t send him an ambulance only for the hospital to refuse him" makes me said that it sounds like it's the exact same way over there.

at least in England you'll almost never get turned down. The waiting room is a fucking pain, but if its serious they'll get you to a ward immediately and if theres no room they'll do treatment in the ambulence.

Either your a rich idiot, or a idiot who has never needed $urgery. A lot of people can't afford health insurance and even if they have it the insurance firms often leave them high and dry when they refuse to honour the claim. Affordable healthcare is a fantastic move and something that many other countries already have.

The IPAB can only make suggestions on procedures performed by doctors for purposes of reducing costs. While yes, this is both a worrying and controversial aspect of the bill, there are no provisions anywhere that would allow them to deny ambulance service under any respect. Additionally such service should always be at least partially covered by the new mandatory insurance programs (assuming you're not being fraudulent).

While there is something to be said for mandating people to buy into insurance plans, nothing in Obamacare actually impacts recieving emergency care via 911 currently. At worst the IPAB can do something stupid in the future, but it won't effect ambulance service.

You know who increased the bureaucracy the most in recent years? Conservative Republican GOD, Ronald Reagan. You can blame him for any cost analysis assessment. Go ahead and look it up.

And if you're bitching about Obamacare? Don't bother, Romneycare is almost the same, so save it for when Obamacare is repealed w/ executive order #### and Romneycare does exactly what Obamacare did except we just wasted huge amounts of taxpayer money.

Think about that. Or not, won't make a difference, either way it's all going to sh*t.

I actually live in Japan and it's not all roses. Stop knee-jerking about Obamacare. The hospitals here are full of lonely old people who use up space and time at the drop of the hat because it's 'free' and they are bored. Meanwhile pregnant women who have an emergency die because they can't find a hospital to take them. Stories like this aren't that unusual here.

TANSTASFL. The sooner you learn that, the better off everyone else will be.